Recap: June in St Austell (Trebellan Park)

The final place I tried when back in Cornwall was a campsite called Trebellan near Newquay. It has three pools with the one right at the bottom holding the larger fish I think. This is another place I have fished in years gone by that I thought I’d try again. I initially went for a walk around the pools in the evening before I fished. It was quite busy on the bottom pool so my plan was to try the other two pools on the site.

Due to my success in the evening at Penvose I decided to just head to Trebellan for the evening and not spend the whole day there. I got there maybe around 5 and found the top two pools jammed with people so I headed down to the bottom pool. To my surprise there weren’t many people there but there was a net laid out on the grass so I think the bailiff had been doing some netting which may have been the reason why. I asked him if it was ok to fish and he said yes so I set up with one rod on the bottom with a boilie and the other with the same floater setup that had been so successful at Penvose. Unfortunately this method of fishing was ruined by the rat infestation where I was fishing. At one point I estimated there were about seven around me and they weren’t very shy! I would throw out free offerings and they would swim out and take them. I did see a rat do this at Penvose but there was nowhere near as may as at Trebellan. They would swim out and try and tow in my hook bait and would come out almost up to my feet at times as I sat in my chair.

I had given up the floater fishing for a bad job and was no longer watching the bait. I had set it up on two bank sticks with the butt in a grip and with the freerunner and alarm on. It was just dipped on the surface just as I was doing at Penvose. It had been in the water for quite a while and I had assumed the rats had nibbled the bait off when all of a sudden something grabbed it and the freerunner started screaming off line. I was into a decent fish and it was trying to dive through rushes and into overhanging tree branches. I did my best to persuade it other wise and eventually it turned and headed towards open water. I had it on for a few seconds longer and as I leant to pull the net closer the hook pulled out. When I inspected it I saw that it had been bent out. I was quite surprised as I didn’t think I was over aggressive with the fish. The hook I was using was part of a pack f a 100 that I had bought cheap on ebay. They looked the part but when I compared it to a top branded equivalent I couldn’t believe the strength difference. That will teach me to buy unbranded rubbish from ebay! This was a bit of a shame because it felt like a good fish too.

That was the only take I had despite the obvious signs of fish moving and splashing all over the place. I get the impression this can be quite a frustrating place where you can see the fish but they are difficult to catch due to the fact it is fished so heavily. The pool itself is quite nice but shame about all the rats.